How to shoot with the iPhone 7 Plus’s telephoto lens
- sep
- 17
The iPhone 7 Plus lets you shoot images at 2x magnification with its 56mm-equivalent lens. Here's how!
When you pick up an iPhone 7 Plus, you're also getting a great multi-camera system to take photographs and shoot video. By default, you shoot with the iPhone's 12-megapixel wide-angle f/1.8 lens, but you can also amp up the magnification and take photos with the new 56mm-equivalent "telephoto" lens — both in the Camera app, or in a variety of great third-party apps.
How to shoot with the telephoto lens in the Camera app
- Open the Camera app and select Photo mode.
- Tap on the 1x button to switch to 2x mode.
Frame and shoot your photo!
As long as you're shooting in a brightly-lit area, the Camera app will automatically select the 56mm-equivalent lens when you switch to 2x magnification; if you're in a dimly-lit area, however, you won't be able to use the it and it will automatically switch to digitally-zoomed wide-angle shot.
How to shoot with the telephoto lens in third-party apps
If you run into a situation like the above where you want to make sure you're shooting with the 56mm-equivalent lens — and that lens only — you can use a third-party manual camera app that supports lens swapping. (Our current favorite is ProCamera.)
Here's how to shoot in ProCamera:
- Open the ProCamera app.
- Tap the More button (looks like three horizontal lines).
Select the Tele camera option.
For other third-party apps that support the iPhone 7 Plus's multi-camera system, instructions will likely be similar — you'll just want to look for their lens selectors.
Questions?
Let us know in the comments.